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Rites of Passage

Our culture today is fast paced and for some it can feel chaotic or overwhelming with our full, tight schedules of work, work, and more work. Many people feel this offers little meaning to life and some have a deep sense that something is lacking, often with a notion of discontentment or restlessness.

There was a time when our tight knit communities took real pleasure in creatively marking and celebrating life changes to bring depth and meaning to their lives. These rites of passage are seen as different phases or initiations of life and heralds a new era for us. By creating some ritual and ceremony with friends, family or loved ones it enables people to really feel into the direction their life is moving. The act of ritual marks the stage of life as something significant and sacred. It enables people to be present with the transition occurring in their lives and cultivates an ability to initiate transformation rather than be at the mercy of the shift that is happening to them.

A ceremony need not be influenced by any specific religious or spiritual tradition. We have the freedom to mark the occasion with something heartfelt and appropriate to bring meaning and a sense of fulfilment to mark the event. Ceremony brings a deeper sense of community and offers a broader vision and learning to the situation or event. It allows us to find spiritual connection, offering us a deep resource into our own power and intuition, helping to navigate our way through the transition.

The importance of marking rites of passage is evident. It offers people an opportunity to integrate their life changing experience with a greater sense of meaning, understanding and self empowerment. It enables us to honour each stage of life, evolving us as whole present beings.

What is a Rite of Passage?

It is a ceremony or ritual that honours and marks a transition from one phase of life to another: To welcome in a new beginning and release the old, to affirm the change we wish for, and to assist us with achieving the vision we have for ourselves. Even if the transition may be difficult or uncomfortable. It enables us to ‘ call ‘ in the new for ourselves and helps to build bridges to release the old and manifest the new into our lives. All rites of passage have three stages to a ceremony. Symbolically they represent the separation from the Old, the Transition and then integration into the New.